The Symptom Series - Fibro Fog
Now, onto the third post in this series and this one is about something that we call 'Fibro Fog.' This is also known as cognitive difficulties and it affects the day to day life of Fibromyalgia suffers quite a bit!
Fibro fog comes in many forms such as:
Many researchers and physicians think that the origin of Fibro Fog lies in poor sleep. When I went to see my Rheumatologist at the time of my diagnosis, he explained to me about how fibromyalgia and poor sleep quality are linked and he explained that although I may sleep through the night and have undisturbed sleep, if I wake up feeling unrefreshed, I am still having poor quality sleep. This could be the reason that I suffer from Fibro Fog however there are other theories as to why we get this and we don't really know the exact reason just yet... Maybe one day!
Fibro fog comes in many forms such as:
- Forgetting words
- Misplacing objects
- Becoming easily distracted
- Forgetting plans
- Difficulty in conversations
- Difficulty remembering new information
Many researchers and physicians think that the origin of Fibro Fog lies in poor sleep. When I went to see my Rheumatologist at the time of my diagnosis, he explained to me about how fibromyalgia and poor sleep quality are linked and he explained that although I may sleep through the night and have undisturbed sleep, if I wake up feeling unrefreshed, I am still having poor quality sleep. This could be the reason that I suffer from Fibro Fog however there are other theories as to why we get this and we don't really know the exact reason just yet... Maybe one day!
So, I thought I'd give some recent examples of brain fog so you can understand a bit more of what it's like for me. Some of these are super frustrating while others are just quite amusing. I'm learning to laugh at these situations because getting frustrated doesn't really help, and to be fair it is pretty funny in hindsight!! So here they are:
- Forgetting where I parked my car
- Losing my keys and phone and just about anything else (Normally this would be fine but I wear myself out trying to find them!)
- Forgetting the names of people that I see all the time
- Reading a whole chapter of a book and having no idea what just happened in the plot
- Panicking that maybe I left the oven or the car unlocked even though I'm sure I didn't
- Drinking a small part of my hot drink, thinking I've finished it, then finding a cold drink later on
- Remembering something to add to my to do list while I'm driving and by the time I've parked the car, I've forgotten it and just can't remember it
When something particular funny happens, I like to put it on my instagram story now and this is helping me to find the humour in the fog! Sometimes people say to me 'but that's normal, everyone gets that' and this is true to a certain extent however I think it's the frequency of these things occurring that cause most of the frustration!
TOP TIP!
The one thing that always helps me with the fog is making to do lists! I do this every day without fail to make sure that I have a focus for the day and know exactly what I need to do. This is also a fool proof way to not forget things - writing them down!!
TOP TIP!
The one thing that always helps me with the fog is making to do lists! I do this every day without fail to make sure that I have a focus for the day and know exactly what I need to do. This is also a fool proof way to not forget things - writing them down!!
Well, that's all I've got to say about Fibro Fog for today, hopefully you learnt something or identified with some of my stories. And if nothing else, hopefully you had a bit of a laugh!!
Thanks for reading, don't forget to subscribe if you'd like to!
KP